School closures involve more than enrollment

Dale Swanson/The Oregonian/1981Students protest the closure of Jackson High School in 1981.For the past month, we've been answering reader questions about the Portland Public Schools high school redesign process. We'll continue answering your questions online, so keep them coming by e-mailing Kimberly Melton.

Low enrollment was the official reason given to close Jackson High (in 1981), but many people say it was more about politics. The district had to reopen the school not long afterward because of growth. Could the same thing happen again?

The last time Portland Public Schools closed high schools, the district shuttered three campuses in the same year.

Southeast Portland's Washington-Monroe High School was closed in May 1981. Northeast Portland's Adams and Southwest Portland's Jackson were closed in July of the same year.

The Portland School Board voted 5-2 to close Adams and Jackson at 3:30 a.m., July 3, 1981, and the board member who authored the resolution went home with a police escort.

Board members said the district needed to save about $2 million, and the closures would help balance the budget. The district cited low enrollment at Adams (665 students) and Jackson (803) as a reason for choosing those schools.

But the issue was more complicated. About a month before the vote to close Adams, board member Herb Cawthorne threatened to file a lawsuit against Portland for closing schools that served a disproportionately high number of students of color. The recommendation to close Jackson emerged three weeks later.

"The school board's decision inflamed the Jackson High community, which now resides in the Wilson High area, and launched a three-year effort by the neighborhood to secede from the district.

At the time, board members said they were making a budget decision. But board member Dean Gisvold, who wrote the proposal to close Jackson, said he thought the entire community should bear the burden of school closures, and that it was fair to close schools in Northeast, Southeast and one on the west side.

Closing Jackson was about low enrollment and saving money. But politics, race and equity issues also played roles. Those issues may emerge again as Portland considers closing neighborhood schools this spring.

About five years after Jackson closed, enrollment on Portland's west side had increased. Portland reopened three elementary schools and reopened Jackson High as a middle school.

Portland Public Schools says it is trying to look ahead five, 10 and 20 years to make sure it is prepared for the future. But Portland is already outpacing its current enrollment projections. So, it is possible that the district could propose closing a high school that is later reopened.